


Riding Hood

by homoamphibians



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Assassins & Hitmen, Bisexual Diego Hargreeves, Bloodlust, Canon-Typical Violence, Childhood Trauma, Diego Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Diego Hargreeves is Bad at Feelings, Diego Hargreeves-centric, Diego has a wife, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Established Relationship, F/M, Fairy Tale Elements, Family Dynamics, Five Hargreeves hates the MC, Found Family, Getting to Know Each Other, Good Sibling Diego Hargreeves, Married Couple, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, Post-Relationship, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Protective Diego Hargreeves, Stuttering Diego Hargreeves, Team as Family, The Children Hargreeves Didn't Get, The Commission, Time Travel, chaotic couple, for the commission, jumping around the timeline, romeo and juliet dynamics, the wife is assassin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:14:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24268036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/homoamphibians/pseuds/homoamphibians
Summary: If you asked the general population about Red, they would think you were talking about a color.If you asked the Comission, however, you would get wonderfully exaggerated stories about her, and perhaps have to reassure a few people that she was not around. A self-taught marksman and dangerous beast all wrapped into one adorable package made for an excellent agent. She was stationed in a big city with the sole job of taking out any threats to the apocalypse. Easy enough.Except when she meets a certain vigilante whose sole job seems to be stopping her from doing her own job.She isn't afraid of the big bad wolf inside her but Diego Hargreeves? He makes her nervous.
Relationships: Diego Hargreeves/Original Female Character(s), Diego Hargreeves/Original Female Commission Character
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	1. prologue (date: commission timeloop, 1952)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> each chapter will have a date attached to the title, the dates are very important because this story jumps around a lot in the timeline

Blood. 

Fresh blood. 

Nearby. 

Whimpers. 

Prey. 

A growl formed in their throat as they lunged towards the still alive prey. 

Teeth sunk into the flesh, ripping and tearing into the prey until the whimpers stopped. 

The prey was small. 

Not much to feed off of. 

It was easily destroyed. 

A heart was thumping, drowning out the noise of blood dripping onto the usually spotless tile like rain. 

Fear. 

More prey. 

Still alive. 

They turned, staring at the prey with no recognition. 

That was prey, fearful prey next to angry prey. 

As they started to crouch down to lunge, a voice interrupted them. 

"Enough!" A cheery voice called out. 

Leader. 

The wolf whimpered, stopping the hunt. 

As the blood frenzy died down, she returned to her senses. 

Two faces stared at her. 

She blinked in recognition. 

Oh.

The one held a look of murderous rage on his face. It was masked, poorly masked, but she knew that look very well. She could read War like a book. A book made for infants. He was calm, but he was certain that he would be the one to kill her.

It was a fair response to her killing one of his own. One of his group. 

Now he was seeking revenge. 

Which was, again, absolutely a fair response. 

It wasn't going to happen though. 

She would not let him take her life. Life was her most precious belonging, besides her boys. Neither of those could be taken from her, or from them. 

Wolves were protective of what was theirs after all. 

The other one, one of her group she had been about to lunge at, had a look of terror mixed with a sprinkling of pity on his face. He was trembling and didn't make eye contact with her as he handed him a towel. Blue never looked at her after a kill. 

She took the towel from him, the rest of the wolf sinking back into her. Red wiped her hands on the dry towel, scrubbing furiously, knowing that the towel would leave different red marks than the ones it took away. But at least if her hands were rubbed raw, they wouldn't be bloodstained. She preferred the blood of her kills on her consciousness rather than her physical form. 

The consciousness hurt sometimes but it never sent her into a frenzy so she could live with that. 

She would have to. 

The nature of the job. 

The job that she had been born into and would be doing at least until she was 25. Probably longer. 

The Handler cleared her throat, a way too bright smile on her face, "A little sloppy in the execution, but I think that gets the point across. Don't you, Five?" 

At that War snapped, disappearing in a flash of blue. 

Red could feel the cold metal of a knife against her throat. 

Predictable. 

It was unusual how cold it was though. Did he refrigerate it or was her body temperature running hot?

The wolf snarled, threatening to appear. 

She hushed it easily, remaining perfectly still. 

There was no need for that. 

Others might consider escaping or unleashing the monster to kill him, but she knew how her value stacked up. 

War was a disobedient teenager who had no team to back him up. Well, he didn't have any team anymore at least. He was worth nothing to the Handler at the moment. Sure his skill was legendary but the attitude problem was something that no one wanted to work with.

Red, however, felt nothing but loyalty to the Temps Commission. She had no life before the Handler had picked her up. Therefore, even though she was a worse shot than War, she was more valuable to the Handler.

Time predictably stopped.

Red slipped out from behind the knife, taking it for good measure and pocketing it. 

She awaited a command from the Handler. 

"Do you think he deserves to die?" The Handler questioned, an eyebrow raised as she looked at Red. 

Red shrugged, "I really do not care Ma'am. He could be useful to the commission but he does have a rebellious side that destroying his team only enhanced." 

"What could Five do for the commission, hmm?" The Handler tapped her foot impatiently. 

Why was she being asked this? 

Was this some sort of test? 

Red made eye contact with her boss, "Give him time and he'll become desperate. A desperate person will do anything to stay afloat." 

"Time? You're amusing, little wolf," the Handler laughed. 

She prepared herself to kill War.

This was bound to happen. 

She didn't particularly want to do it, but killing someone else would mean nothing to her. She had killed two out of the Four Horsemen. Another one would mean nothing. She could provide the extinction of a whole group. 

It was in her job description after all.

Blue covered his eyes, not wanting to see what happened. He was the most sensitive of the group, even more than Gold. It was his position in the group, the empathetic one. 

The Handler snapped her fingers, "Time it is! 40 years in the apocalypse should handle him just fine. 

"Yes Ma'am," she stepped back. 

A pause as Blue moved over to Red, stepping into place behind her. 

"Do we have a new assignment?" Red asked, raising an eyebrow, hoping for a reward not a punishment as her answer. 

For someone as structured as the Handler, her reactions were completely randomized. 

She was as the group called it...unhinged. 

There was no calculation, no equation to decide which version of the Handler would appear. It was unpredictable.

Red was risking everything just to ask a simple question. 

A smile and a nod, "Report to Dot. All of you. She has a permanent assignment for you. Your work today was satisfactory Red." 

"Thank you ma'am," Red bowed her head before heading out of the room, Blue exactly a step behind her as she moved. 

The door slammed shut behind them. 

The two boys waiting for them turned at the noise. 

Gold sighed, "Thank the handler, I thought you were dead. It took so long." 

"War and Famine still alive?" Purple asked, glancing from the two of them before nodding slightly. He didn't show many emotions, that was the extent of showing the fact that he was happy they had survived. 

She understood him though. 

They all understood each other. 

Blue looked down, "War is. Famine's dead though or close to it." 

"I killed Famine yes. His heart stopped beating as soon as I changed targets," Red shrugged. 

Blue glanced at her, "Yeah, thanks for almost killing me by the way." 

"Anytime kid," she smirked, ignoring the eye roll she got in response. 

Gold spoke up, "Wait. You killed famine right?" 

"I swear to handler Gold, you say anything dumb and I'll cut your tongue out," Purple remarked, his voice monotone. 

Gold put his hands up, "Me? Say something dumb? I would never." 

"Just say it already," Red rolled her eyes. 

Gold grinned, "So you could say that today you solved world hunger?" 

A pause. 

Blue tried to bite back a smile, horribly failing at it though. 

"I'll hold him down," Red offered. 

Purple shrugged, "That's not necessary." 

"No! I need my tongue!" Gold took off running down the hallway.

Purple followed quickly behind him. 

Red grinned turning to Blue, "Come on kid." 

"Fine," Blue took her hand. 

She took off running, letting loose as the two of them ran hand in hand down the hallway. 

They quickly caught up to where Gold was trapped in a vines. 

Red tackled Purple to the ground as Blue started the process of freeing Gold. 

Purple groaned, "Let me do one fucking thing."

"You know we don't hurt each other," Red patronized him as she pinned him to the ground. 

Purple stared at her. 

She stared back. 

A moment passed. 

Purple averted his eyes, "Fine. If he makes another idiotic horseman joke, I am leaving him on a mission." 

"Agreed," Red rolled off of him, brushing off her outfit as she stood up. 

Blue nodded, "Agreed." 

"Hey!" Gold protested, crossing his arms. 

The chaos died down as they approached the office they needed to go to. 

After all, they were professional assassins first. 

Teenagers second. 

None of them got to be kids here. 

Not now, not ever. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> working on revamping this so basically completely rewriting this story   
> please be patient with me, I just had the desire to completely change the flow of this story


	2. 1 (date: september 2nd, 2013)

The silence was broken by someone falling to the floor and screaming.

Red sighed, picked up her gun, and headed to the living room.

One of her idiot boys had come home wounded again. They always seemed to do that. She didn't understand how someone could come home wounded from a sniping job, but they always managed to do so. 

It was an interesting talent to have. 

Some people had the ability to shoot exceptionally well. Others, like her boys, had the ability to be covered in blood. 

Except Purple. No blood was ever on him, whether it was his own or someone else's. He stayed clean. Which is why he handled the fake business side of the gang. He formed alliances, arranged for the collection of big ticket item goods and arranged for their departure to keep the neighborhood peaceful.

Red called the shots from behind him. He was the public leader, she was the actual one. Most people just knew her as the person who would kill you if you ever crossed the gang. That was fair as she did handle the extermination of rats. It was exceptionally easy to do that, her wolf needed to be fed after all and lowlifes worked quite well for that. 

Gold handled the distribution of extra drugs. He sometimes got money for the drugs he got rid of, but they all had a sinking suspicion most of the drugs were going straight into his body. No one really cared as long as he got the job done. And that he did.

Blue didn't really do anything in the gang. He also didn't handle his assignments well, typically coming home more damaged than he left the other one with. He was possibly the worst assassin in the Temps Commission. They called him the emotional support assassin as he was really nice but absolute shit at being an assassin. 

Which was why it wasn't entirely a surprise to find him on the ground.

The scent of blood wafted off of him, circling her.

She tossed her gun onto the couch, safety on of course, and walked over to him.

He was groaning in pain, she kicked him, he stopped groaning.

She raised an eyebrow, "Where are you bleeding?"

"I'm not bleeding," Blue announced from the ground.

An eye roll is what answered him, "I can smell it. You're losing blood fast and all over the carpet." 

"How close are you?" He asked, sitting up. 

Sitting up was a bad move as more blood poured out of him. 

She analyzed herself, taking a deep breath to go inside the wolf for a moment.

They were grumbling about something, like always, but they were full. This scent of blood did not intrigue them this time. They weren't in a hunting mindset. 

The amount of blood pouring out of Blue might change that though. 

She offered him a hand, basically picking him up off the ground when he took it, "You're safe. Wolf has standards and it's not gonna sink as low as you."

He rolled his eyes, "If you weren't the only person in the house at the moment, I'd tell you to fuck off."

"If I didn't want to avoid tempting myself, I'd leave you bleeding out on the carpet," she retorted easily, walking him to the med room.

He was rather easy to practically carry. Him being lighter than the average human and her being stronger.

Little Boy Blue was as little as his title claimed. 

She set him gently down on the bed, "Where are you bleeding?"

She had already asked that question, but she wasn't angry with him for not answering. It was fairly obvious that he wasn't in a great state of mind. He was losing blood fast and therefore he was in shock. 

If it was anyone else from the gang that had lost that amount of blood they would be functioning normally. But Blue was a softie, and she knew it.

They all knew it. 

No one hated him for it. 

Judged him sure, but no hatred. 

He simply groaned in response.

She tapped into the Wolf, scanning over him as if he was a potential target.

His weaknesses popped up to them easily, a slash below his already weak ribs would finish him off. Or perhaps they could go for the jugular and finish things off in style. They always liked to show off plus the neck was always a source for the fresh stuff it desired. There was old dried contaminated blood near the ribs. They didn't like the old blood. Fresh was preferred.

A claw extended, raking across the victim's throat tracing out the way they could kill him.

He whimpered, a sound that delighted them but bothered her.

They closed their eyes and she opened hers.

She was back.

She was in control. 

"Red?" Blue murmured, his eyes open in terror.

She nodded, "I'm in control."

And she was. 

She ripped off his shirt and stared at the gaping wound right underneath his ribs.

He had gotten shot. 

Fuck. 

It was pretty bad. 

The wolf started growling, internally thankfully. 

They were getting restless. 

She snapped gloves onto her hands and dug for the bullet.

He whimpered in agony, which was pretty fair. 

She should've given him pain meds first but it was too late for that.

She wasn't going to wait for those to kick in, he could just deal with it.

"Red! That hurts," he protested.

She rolled her eyes, successfully extracting the bullet, "Don't get shot then you dumbass. If it's unbearable, stop me. Until you charm me to stop, I'm not going to."

"Yeah, that's fair," Blue muttered, his voice faint. 

She grabbed the disinfecting mix. 

Blue shuddered as he saw it. 

Gold waltzed in at this time, "Who bled out on the carp...Oh."

"Surprise surprise. It was Little Boy Blue," Red tossed the druggie the supplies, "I'm out. Clean him up."

He rolled his eyes, catching the supplies easily, "Could've guessed that and really? Do I have to?"

She glared at him, effectively silencing his whines.

She strode out of the room, flinching slightly at Blue's screams that immediately started.

The disinfecting hurt worse than getting shot. 

Not to mention the fact Gold would be giving him stitches. 

Getting shot again was preferable than Gold giving anyone stitches. 

She didn't have a choice though. 

She had control of her wolf, she always did. 

Them getting restless was not a good sign though. 

It was best to be on the safe side. 

She knew she had control. 

Just best to step away. 

Plus Blue screaming was never fun to hear up close. 

He could scream extremely fucking loud. 

Red knelt down by the pool of blood, starting to clean it up. The smell drew her in, way too much. 

Perhaps the wolf was not as full as she had thought. 

She needed to unleash it. That was at least obvious to her.

Red finished cleaning and laid on the couch, waiting for someone who could help her.

It was an hour of her, holding herself tightly before Purple teleported in. 

Purple placed his briefcase down, next to the coat rack, shrugging off his 40's style coat as he did so as well, "Red?"

"Anyone I can kill?" She requested. 

He shrugged, "We'll find someone. Come along."

And thus they left the house, about to punish those who maybe didn't entirely deserve to be punished.

But so was the way of their life. 

Just another day in the job. 


	3. 2 (date: september 2nd, 2013)

It wasn't easy finding a target. Most established gangs knew that they meant business and thus left them alone.

So it was the unofficial new ones that were the ones that messed up. 

It was something small. 

Being late to a payment. 

A day late, a dollar short. 

That was enough for the lives to be taken. 

Usually they had more of a reason but there was no one around to go after. 

No mission that required the wolf. 

Therefore, they really had to go after a relatively innocent person. 

At least it kept their reputation, didn't mean that this would weigh on her consciousness. 

All of her kills weighed on her, they didn't use to until they had been assigned this permanent job and she had to really stick around and see the consequences. 

There was not always a briefcase to flash away from the scene. 

It was real. 

Her killing was actually a thing that hurt people. 

She still had to do it no matter what, she just was more aware of her consciousness, which she unfortunately had. 

It was in her job description after all. 

And that was not something to be questioned. 

Not now. 

Not ever. 

Not to mention the fact that her wolf needed to kill anyway, so the job worked well with it. 

They weren't here for the job though. They were here for her own selfish purposes. Her desire to keep the wolf alive. 

She needed to remember that. 

It wasn't something she could blame on her boss or her job. 

This was her. Completely. 

She needed to be able to live with that. If not live with it, at least survive with it. 

That was her way of life, surviving. 

Just surviving, not living. 

And that was enough for her. 

"Your payment is late," Purple announced, lounging against the doorframe whose door had been freshly removed by Red. 

The person answering the door gulped, "Let me get the boss for you." 

"Quickly. I am not a patient man," Purple stared unblinkingly at the man before he scurried off into the house. 

She could hear the sound of people moving around in the house. 

There was five of them home. 

The stench of fear emanated from the house.

Heartbeats picked up. 

Prey. 

Scared prey. 

"Restraint Little Red," Purple whispered, placing a gloved hand on her shoulder. 

A snarl. 

They didn't relax into the hand. 

It removed itself. 

"Control yourself," Purple's voice was harsher and his jaw clenched. 

A command. 

He was trying to be their master. 

Cute. 

His heart had sped up after they had snarled. 

He wasn't fooling them. 

But they would hold back. 

This was her friend, they didn't hurt her friends. 

Plus he was bringing them to more prey. 

They wanted prey without the plants that popped up around her friends. 

They retreated slightly. 

She blinked, glancing over at Purple, "I'm in control." 

"Good," he responded. 

He didn't relax. 

She didn't either. 

Both of them knew that she was lying. 

The wolf knew what they were here for. 

They wouldn't back down so easily, not when this trip was specifically for them.

The leader emerged. 

She was afraid, trying to hide it. 

Her hand levitated over a gun as she spoke, "What's this about?" 

"You missed a payment. I am simply here to collect what is owed to us," Purple smirked slightly, standing up straight. 

The boss raised an eyebrow, "And what's that?" 

"10k and an arm and a leg," he responded simply. 

Two limbs. 

Only two limbs. 

Disappointing. 

They wanted an entire person. 

This would do. 

The leader shook her head, "What do you mean an arm and a leg?" 

"Interest my dear. There has to be a punishment of some sorts. Otherwise people would abuse my kind nature," he stared at her. 

They stared as well. 

Movement from behind her. 

The person from earlier. 

Scared. 

Trembling. 

Easy to take down. 

She crossed her arms, "We'll pay 12k, drop the whole punishment thing. I'm not letting you mutilate any of my crew's limbs." 

"Who said anything about letting? Wolfie? Go fetch," Purple gestured towards the house. 

Finally. 

They stretched their legs, barreling over the leader into the house. 

Their prey was easy to find. 

They got to work, dodging the few bullets fired their way before it promptly stopped. 

Their prey screamed, they growled. 

Teeth met flesh, tearing into it. 

One arm. 

One leg. 

That was it. 

No more. 

They weren't supposed to take more. 

Disappointing. 

"We need to go. Red drop it, someone called the cops," Purple called out. 

They growled again, shaking the body in their mouth vigorously before throwing it away. 

They got a little time to hunt, a little blood. 

Not much. 

But enough. 

They needed to switch out. 

They started running into the night, into the back alleys where no one would follow them. 

She rounded a corner, evening out her breath as she took control. 

A knife sunk into her leg. 

She fell, forcing herself into a roll and getting up. 

A man stared at her, "Who are you? Why were you at a crime scene?" 

Her heart raced but not in a fearful way. 

Really? 

They were disappointed.

She was also disappointed. 

"I'd stay back if I were you," she growled. 

He raised an eyebrow, "I'd stop moving if I were you. You move any more and you'll get perm...perm...permanent nerve damage on your leg." 

"Oh, is that all? Thanks for the knife," and with that she continued running, tapping into them. 

It was easier when they were in control. 

They could focus on getting her home without the confusion of attraction distracting them. 

And oh shit was there a lot of confusion happening there. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my mind is a twister spinner spinning between my fics, landing on one at random to give me all the inspiration for even though I want inspiration for a different one
> 
> but my brain has tuned into Red so here we are
> 
> next chapter we get into more of the jumping around timeline thing so make sure to pay attention to the dates, they matter a lot


End file.
